In what should come as no surprise to anyone following the recent news of downturns in the whiskey market and distilleries pausing production, new data from the U.S. Treasury Department said that American whiskey production is at its lowest level since 2019. This is a marked downturn for an industry that was thriving up until recent years, and the numbers are quite dramatic.
According to an article published by the Lexington Herald Leader, the Treasury Department’s 2025 monthly national statistical report said that American whiskey distilleries produced 78 million proof gallons from January to April of 2025, a 28 percent decline from the same time period last year. According to the government’s records, that is the lowest level of production since 2019, a time when American whiskey was booming even before the heights reached during the pandemic when people were ordering a lot of whiskey to drink at home.
The report also said that whiskey destined for export had dropped by a staggering 70 percent, a number that might not be shocking to many in the industry given how the Trump administration’s tariffs have affected sales in other countries. For example, Canada, one of the booze industry’s largest export markets, banned sales of American whiskey in some provinces after Trump threatened to annex the country and instituted a 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods. In August, Brown-Forman, the parent company of Jack Daniel’s which has seen wide layoffs and the closure of its cooperage in the past year, said that its sales were down by more than 60 percent since the ban, a significant financial hit to this family-run business.
As we’ve reported recently, major American distilleries like MGP have responded to the drop in demand for whiskey by cutting back on their production. And just last week the news arrived that Diageo had ceased production at two of its American distilleries, Balcones in Texas and Cascade Hollow, the home of George Dickel, in Tennessee. According to the Treasury report, the amount of whiskey inventory in America has tripled over the past decade to almost 1.5 billion proof gallons despite the drop in demand. In other words, there’s a whiskey glut and companies are scaling back to deal with this situation.
We reached out to the Distilled Spirits Council for comment, and received some insight from Hasan Bakir, senior director of economic studies. According to Bakir, monthly whiskey production started to decline year-over-year beginning in October of 2024. “The production decline is not too surprising given the current level of whiskey inventories, the slowdown in the domestic market, and tariff-related issues that are negatively impacting exports,” he said in a statement. DISCUS will issue its mid-year report next week, so we will update you with any relevant information once that drops.
Authors
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Jonah Flicker